This album serves as a profoundly moving tribute to the artistry of mezzo-soprano Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, who passed away on July 3rd, 2006 after a long bout with cancer, at the age of 52. It is also a testament to the remarkable personal and musical relationship the singer cultivated with her composer husband Peter Lieberson, who adapted five sonnets from Chilean poet Pablo Neruda for this work, jointly commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Boston Symphony.
This beautiful, touching cycle of five love songs on poems by Pablo Neruda was composed by Peter Lieberson for his wife, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson. They were first presented in Los Angeles in May, 2005. This recording, coming as it does just months after Hunt Lieberson's untimely death, is a fitting tribute to her art. The songs are as arrestingly lovely and moving as are her performances of them. It will be a long time before another singer dares undertake a performance that might try to bring something new to the music. Scored for mezzo-soprano and a bevy of instruments (not all of which ever play at once--flutes, oboe, English horn, clarinets, bassoons, horns, trumpets, various percussion, harp, piano and strings--the songs are all "approachable" modern music, filled with both drama and a distinctively Spanish flavor. The songs range from a sensual appreciation of the beloved and a fear of separation to a peaceful but very sad evocation: "My love, if I die and you don't." Lieberson clearly composed them with great love for his wife; we the listeners benefit from that love in the direct, candid music and performances. This cycle may just be the Four Last Songs of the 21st century. A must. --Robert Levine
